Unknown Painter
From Anthology of 1398 in Bihbahan (near Shiraz)
This is my favourite Persian miniature painting. A river flows gently down a hill, while songbirds perch in groups in the flowering shrubs. A feeling of mystical harmony and peacefulness pervades the scene.
The painting is so stylized in the matching hills, complementary colours, sinuous curve of the river, groups of birds, in every aspect of the painting that perhaps it has some symbolic meaning that now escapes us.
Unlike most miniature paintings, this subject has no connection with the text on the page or on surrounding pages. Landscape paintings without figures are very rare, and in fact the eleven non-figural paintings in this manuscript are the only known examples in Persian painting.
The river, while it looks black now, was originally silver - over the centuries, it has oxidized and turned black.
Painted in 1398 by an unknown master in the Iranian city of Shiraz, this painting stands alone, without a tradition either before or after it. It is that wonderful uniqueness which makes this painting so intriguing.